Carving Out Those Boulder Shoulders

Everybody wants Steve Reeves’ shoulders. In all honesty, his deltoid development wasn’t exceptionally impressive, but he was blessed with god-like shoulder width in his skeletal frame which more than made up for any flatness in his deltoid muscles. For us mere mortals, however, we have to work our shoulders to obtain some kind of width. I, myself, have narrow shoulders, so I’ve always paid special attention to my lateral delts.

As you can probably guess, this article is about creating the illusion of width in your shoulders. We should, however, examine the differences between the 3 heads that comprise the deltoid muscle group.

The Lateral Head

This is the head that you want to focus on to create the illusion of width in your shoulders. You want to develop the bulbous look of this head, so that you have some separation between it and your biceps and triceps. If your lateral is flat, not only do you lose the illusion of wide shoulders but your arms also look fat if you have large biceps and triceps. To develop the lateral head, you should use a wide variety of reps, but focus on the Type IIa and Type I fibers. In other words, you should complete a higher number of reps with little or no rest. This is why set extension techniques such as trisets and descending sets work particularly well for the lateral head.

The Posterior Head

This is the least developed deltoid in bodybuilders. Although many bodybuilders perform bent-over lateral raises, this exercise is actually a poor choice for developing the posterior deltoid. With bent-over laterals, there is a tendency to cheat and swing the weights up with the help of the upper back muscles, the trapezius, and the legs. To develop the rear deltoids, I prefer the exercise known as “lying reverse flys.” This is simply an exercise where you lie on your side and perform rear delt raises one arm at a time. The lying reverse fly is a superior exercise, because it allows for a greater stretch of the posterior deltoid when the dumbbell passes across the chest and comes close to the floor.

The Anterior Head

This is the head you need to worry about the least. Most bodybuilders perform plenty of bench presses, incline presses, and military presses to develop this deltoid. Even when it comes to standing lateral raises, the anterior head will activate if you use poor form (which most people do). Unless you’re lacking in anterior head development, I would skip front delt training altogether. Since they’re mostly made up of fast-twitch fibers, heavy pressing (from any angle) will activate the anterior heads.

Techniques for Increasing Lateral Deltoid Size

Lean Away Laterals (Descending Sets): In order to stimulate growth in my side delts, I developed this brutal method for my workouts. It’s the best technique I’ve come across. Here’s what you do: Perform 3 sets of lean away dumbbell lateral raises. Each set is comprised of 4 descending sets. Rest 90 seconds between each arm. Here’s a sample workout:

Lean away dumbbell laterals (10-12 reps at 25 lbs.) Use left arm. Followed immediately by

I should warn you that performing too much work on the trapezius muscle (i.e. narrow grip upright rows) can make narrow shoulders look even narrower. My advice to bodybuilders with narrow frames is to abandon any direct trap work. People with narrow shoulders develop immense traps without even training them directly. For these folks, any standing upper body exercises will develop their traps. Bow and Press: Here’s an exercise from the bodybuilding genius, the late Vince Gironda, a man way ahead of his time. This exercise places continuous tension on all three deltoid heads. Grab a pair of dumbbells that you would normally use for laterals. Hold them in front of you, as if you’re about to complete a biceps curl, with the elbows slightly forward. From this position, move your arms out to the sides till it looks like you’re forming a “W.” At this point, press the dumbbells up in an arc, keeping your elbows as far back as possible. That’s one rep. Now slowly reverse the movement and perform 8-12 reps. Make sure you perform this entire movement slowly. This will give you a burn in your shoulders that you’ve never felt before.

The “Bow and Press”

Overhead Dumbbell Press (Pinkies Up): Here’s how Arnold would tweak his overhead dumbbell presses: he would lift the dumbbells with his pinky side higher than his thumb side. This may not seem like a significant change in form, but if you incorporate this little trick, you’ll hit the lateral deltoids much harder. Here are some other tips to remember:

perform this movement standing. If you perform dumbbell overhead presses sitting in a chair with back support, then there’ll be a tendency for you to lean back, which would shift the focus to your front delts

keep your elbows as far back as possible throughout the movement to keep the stress on the lateral delts

If you still can’t get boulder shoulders after blasting away with these techniques, then you’re out of luck. But hey, who knows? Maybe those shoulder pads from the 80’s will be in fashion again.

About the Author

James Chan works full-time as a police officer for the University of California Police Department in San Francisco. In addition to his patrol duties, James is also a defensive tactics instructor for the department. James is also an NSCA certified personal trainer who specializes in strength training for law enforcement and physique enhancement for the general population. He may be reached at[email protected]. For more information on his upcoming book, “Strength and Physique, Volume One,” visit his blog at www.strengthandphysique.blogspot.com.

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